DUTCH PINBALL MASTERS

The Dutch Pinball Masters is one of the major European tournaments and can generally expect a healthy turnout from many of the continent’s top players.

This year there was a slight diminution due to a clash of dates with the German Pinball Association’s convention in Potsdam, but competition was still fierce at the Dutch Pinball Association’s (NFV’s) clubhouse in Veenendaal in the centre of the Netherlands.

The NFV’s clubhouse in Veenendaal

The location was the same as it had been for the past few years, a light-industrial unit on a commercial park on the outskirts of the town. There’s are no catering or hotel facilities close-by, so a car or taxi was a must to get here. Vacant spaces outside the unit, on the street and in front of adjacent buildings meant there was no problem parking.

Once inside the door, there was an arrangement of plants, flowers and copies of the NFV’s Spinner magazine, as well as a wall showing supporters’ logos.

The table in the lobby

Supporters of the NFV

Once fully inside the building, the first section is the cafe and seating area.

The cafe area

The cafe had a full kitchen and prepared a range of hot food items, including fries, burgers, chicken sate, sausages, mini-snack selections and salads. The prices for all these were very reasonable, with a burger costing €2 ($2.17/£1.68) and a chicken meal with fries and salad at €6.50 ($7.07 /£5.56).

Part of the menu

Part of a meal

Soup was also available, while soft drinks, beer and wine could also be purchased.

Soup in front, beers and sodas behind

Although there was a demand for quality craft or abbey ales, only Heineken or Bavaria beers were available for €2 a bottle. Those looking for something a little better had to either go elsewhere or bring their own.

Seating was available for those enjoying their meals or drinks, as well as those resting from the pinball. Alternatively, the weather outside was good enough to enjoy your purchases alfresco.

Indoor seating

At the very front of the building were several small rooms either containing games to play or used for game repair.

A selection of EMs

When it’s too much pinball, enjoy darts, video games or table football/foosball/babyfoot

The main selection of pinballs was located in the back two-thirds of the hall. The two rows on the left were the main tournament machines, bolstered by a group on the back wall which were used as back-up machines in case of failure by any of those in the main tournament.

Machines and players in the main tournament

Those tournament machines were:

Main Dutch Pinball Masters Machines

1

Tommy

2

Junkyard

3

Fish Tales

4

Avatar

5

Spider-Man

6

Scared Stiff

7

Dirty Harry

8

Indianapolis 500

9

Roadshow

10

Star Trek: The Next Generation

11

Jackbot

12

Pirates of the Caribbean

13

World Cup Soccer

14

Demolition Man

15

Funhouse

16

Goldeneye

17

Doctor Who

18

Attack from Mars

19

Monopoly

20

Medieval Madness

21

The Lord of the Rings

22

Whirlwind

23

Congo

24

Creature from the Black Lagoon

25

Whitewater

26

Hoops

The back-up machines were: The Sopranos, High Speed 2: The Getaway, Terminator 2 and Corvette.

On the right side of the hall were the free-play machines, while on the back wall was a row of eight machines used for the classics tournament.

Free-play machines

Free-play machines

There were nicely-decorated table on which to put your drinks

Free-play machines

Ad Jonker’s Captain Nemo machine was also here to play

The eight classics tournament machines were:

Main Dutch Pinball Masters Machines

1

Capt. Fantastic

2

Bobby Orr Power Play

3

Gorgar

4

Charlie’s Angels

5

Dealer’s Choice

6

Paragon

7

Harlem Globetrotters

8

Viking

The back-up machine was Mata Hari.

The classics tournament

In addition to these tournaments, there was also a team competition held on Friday night.

Trophies for the tournaments

The team tournament saw eight teams of four split into two groups. The teams and groups were:

Team Tournament Groups

Group A

Dutch Pinball Team

Team Slovenia

Oslo Tiltboys

Team Delta

Group B

Pinball DNA

Archiball Team

Team Ro-Me

Oslo Pinball Casuals

Each team played a match against each of the other three teams in their group. A match consisted of each player playing a member of the opposing team on a machine to win 1 point per game, and a pair of split-flipper games for two points each.

The two teams with the most points in each group went into the semi-finals. Here the winner of Group A played second place in Group B and vice-versa in the same style of match as in the first round.

The winners from the first round were Dutch Pinball Team and Pinball DNA, while second place qualifiers were Team Delta and Team Ro-Me.

Dutch Pinball Team and Pinball DNA won the semi-final matches, setting them up for a final match held in the same format.

In the final, the Dutch Pinball Team won three of the four individual matches to lead 3-1, meaning Pinball DNA needed to win both split-flipper games. They won one of them, but that was not enough, meaning the Dutch Pinball Team of Albert Nomden, Paul Jongma, Mark van der Gugten and Joska Keunekamp won 5-3.

The main Dutch Pinball Masters tournament began on Saturday with a qualifying round for all 141 players. Tournament entry cost €15 in addition to the daily €7.50 fee for entry to the clubhouse, meaning a €30 total price for entry if you played on both days. As a bonus, all competitors received a 10% discount off products from playfield-protectors.com.

There were three qualifying periods starting at 09:30, 13:15 and 17:00, each one lasting around three-and-a-half hours.

In each period, players were split into four groups (A-D, E-H and J-M) with around twelve players in each group. Every competitor played a single three-ball game against each other player in their group, in a predetermined order and on preselected machines. A win in a game earned one point, a loss scored a zero.

Players in the qualifying round

When a game was over, the winner would come to a terminal and register their win.

Tournament systems head Ad Jonker at the results terminal

The current matches on the results terminal

As each result was recorded, the overall picture emerged on a large screen.

The overall group standings

The group scores

For all groups, a score of eight wins or more would guarantee you a place in Sunday’s second round. If you got seven wins it was a toss-up whether that would be enough, or if you would end up in a tie-breaker. With six wins you would be lucky to progress. It wasn’t impossible, but unlikely, and a tie-breaker was an almost certainty.

It wasn’t how you won, but how many you won

Head-to-head games were the order of the day

Every win was a step closer to qualification

Those who did progress needed to be back at the venue at 9:40 on Sunday morning for the start of the second round. For everyone else, their Dutch Pinball Masters was over, and just the classic tournament remained.

Just a few points could be the difference between progressing and going home

The classic tournament cost an additional €10 to enter and was held on the eight machines we listed above, with competitors given ten games spread across the eight machines in order to qualify. No machine could be played more than twice and all ten scores were ranked, with the top 24 players progressing to the play-offs and the top players receiving a bye through the first round.

Classic tournament score cards

Players were issued with a score card for the classic tournament, but in truth all scores were recorded electronically on tablets or phones. with the current standings shown on a terminal.

Checking the current classic tournament standings

Current standings and games in progress

Qualifying continued until 8:30pm on Saturday, with the play-offs beginning at 9pm once the main DPM rounds had finished and all players were free to take part.

Matches in the play-offs were head-to-head best-of-five games on machines drawn at random.

The play-offs schedule

The classic tournament play-offs

The classic tournament play-offs

The classic tournament play-offs

DPM tournament directors Albert Nomden and Paul Jongma

The final came down to a battle between Gabriele Tedeschi from Italy and Rich Mallett from the UK.

Gabriel on Mata Hari in the final

After some exciting games, Mata Hari was the decider, and with Gabriel going first but failing to score much Rich just had to hold his nerve, which he did very successfully to win the game and the final.

Rich prepares to plunge his winning final ball

So, Rich was the winner, Gabriel second, while in the play-off it was Jochen Krieger Germany who took third place ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Puertas in fourth.

Dutch Pinball Masters Classic Tournament winner, Rich Mallett

Second place, Gabriele Tedeschi

Third place, Jochen Krieger

Here are all the placings in the DPM classic tournament:

DPM Classic Tournamenti 2017

Pos

Name

1

Rich Mallett

2

Gabriele Tedeschi

3

Jochen Krieger

4

Sebastien Puertas

6

Marco Suvanto

6

Jan Anders Nilsson

6

David Deturck

6

Lieven Engelbeen

12

Joël Wozniak

12

Arjan Neet

12

Philippe Bocquet

12

David Mainwaring

12

Mathias Leurs

12

Fredrik Mellberg

12

Perttu Pesä

12

Eko Elens

20

Evert Brochez

20

Andreas Hedström

20

Ad Jonker

20

Kirsten Adam

20

Ivan Geentjens

20

Jonas Valström

20

Ollivier Francq

20

Anders Carlsson

25

Cayle George

26

Martijn Van Amsterdam

27

Martin Ayub

28

Heinz Berges

29

Helen de Haan-Verbeek

29

Albert Nomden

31

Robert Lau

32

Juha Viitanen

32

Fabrizio Amiconi

34

Alysa Parks

35

Florian Thomas

36

Rob Fransen

37

Rob Overdijk

38

John van der Wulp

39

Željko Vasic

40

Paul Jongma

41

Artur Natorski

42

Vin Jauhal

43

Peter Franck

44

Bart Volman

45

Vincent Chardome

46

Kevin Roelants

47

Mattias Jeppsson

48

Frank Wolthers

49

Wolfgang Haid

49

Benjamin Gräbeldinger

51

Pittchen Müller

52

Erno Lahdenperä

53

Thomas Van Clapdorp

54

Andrej Rižner

54

Carlo Vijn

56

Matt Vince

56

Tormod Pettersen

58

Mario Schröder

59

Didier Dujardin

59

Ramon Richard

61

Laurence Boulieu

62

Simo Rimmi

63

Jani Saari

63

Ales Rebec

65

Michel Lanters

66

Jules Reivers

67

Daniel Bertilsson

67

Tom-Andre Andersen

69

Stan Simpson

70

Dominique De Cock

70

Archibald Lefevre

72

Norman Heikamp

73

Pontus Qvarfordh

73

Evelyne Desot

75

Glenn Verhoosele

76

Mark van der Gugten

77

Alain Boulieu

78

Laurent Mahe

79

Thomas Reichenstein

79

Norbert Broman

81

Sven Kirmes

81

Michel Rorive

83

Adam Lundquist

84

Stéphane Swaenepoel

85

Jürgen Schmitz

86

Olav Hjelmstadstuen

87

Erol Saydam

88

Vid Kuklec

89

Gerard Vos

90

Emma Berlin

91

Fredrik Lekander

92

Tom Geneyn

92

Thomas Doepelheuer

94

Mirko Bogic

95

Andreas Thorsén

95

Kelly Lembrechts

97

Olivier Renders

98

Oyvind Winther

99

Svein Tjeldflåt

100

Neil Fellender

100

Nils de Kleine

102

Fred Van Den Bosch

103

Eric Andries

104

Bjørn Erlend Hellem

105

Daniela Oymann

106

Gerard Poelwijk

107

Daniel Bradford

108

Ralf Wittwer

109

Morten Søbyskogen

110

Rob Breyne

111

Kevin Sultana

112

Manuela Krieger

113

Bjorn Brand

114

Andrej Demsar

115

Johan Bernhardtson

116

Elin Wilhelmsen

117

Torstein Bjørnstad

118

Babs Negelen

119

Jasmijn de Jong

120

Stanislas Chabior

121

Joeri Stroobants

122

Kyoo Barbaix

123

Karin Eisenstecken

124

ralf de kleine

125

Sandra Søbyskogen

Sunday morning rolled around with the main DPM tournament left to decide.

Only the DPM trophies remain

The top four from each of the four groups in each of the three qualifying sessions meant (4 x 4) x 3 = 48 players progressed to the second round which began at 10am on Sunday.

Sunday’s second round

The format was the same as Saturday – four groups of twelve players, with everyone playing one head-to-head game against everyone else in their group (11 games). The four players with the most wins in each group would move on to the quarter finals.

The second round of the Dutch Pinball Masters

The sixteen who made it into the quarter-finals were:

Tormod Pettersen

Roger Wijnands

Kirsten Adam

Taco Wouters

David Deturck

Jules Reivers

Philippe Bocquet

Sébastien Puertas

Benjamin Gräbeldinger

Cayle George

Ivan Geentjens

Bart Volman

Fredrik Lekander

John van der Wulp

Jan Anders Nilsson

Bjorn Brand

The quarter-finals paired up players in a best-of-five match on randomly-drawn machines. The first to win three games moved on to the semi-finals.

Kirsten Adam had three straight wins to progress, as did Ivan Geentjens, Sébastien Puertas and Cayle George. David Deturck took four games to win, the same as Jan Anders Nilsson and John van der Wulp, while Roger Wijnands took all five games to win and move on to the semis.

The semi-final was the same as the quarters – best-of-five on random machines.

This time David Deturck beat Kirsten Adam 3-2, Jan Anders Nilsson did the same against Ivan Geentjens, as did Roger Wijnands against Sébastien Puertas. Only Cayle George had an easier 3-0 win against John van der Wulp.

In the four-player four-game final, each competitor got to choose a machine to play with 9-5-2-0 scoring used for first to fourth places.

Jan Anders Nilsson began by choosing Congo, but the game didn’t co-operate with him this time. His first ball scored 100M to put him in third place, while balls two and three only lifted that to 380M which was last place.

Cayle George had the best first ball with 215M, boosted to 800M on his second and 1.067B on his third to win. David Deturck recovered from a bad 79M start to end on 932M for second, while Roger Wijnands’s 744M total was only good enough for third.

David chose Star Trek: The Next Generation for game two but once again the curse of machine choice struck as his 1.2B was the lowest of the four scores. Jan had a great last ball, scoring 2.3B to end up on 3.1B, taking first place. Cayle’s 2.6B might normally be enough to win but only gave him second here, with Roger’s 1.8B good for third.

Cayle’s choice of Scared Stiff broke the chooser’s curse with his ball one score of 16M being enough to win the game. In the end, he totalled 79M – way ahead of David in second on 9.8M, Jan on 2.7M and Roger who never got started and ended on just 0.8M.

With game four still to play, Cayle’s 23 points was already enough to win the final, with Jan closest behind on 11 points, David in third on 10, and Roger on 4. But Roger could still get into a tie-breaker for second place if the other places worked out for him, while Jan and David were battling it out.

Roger chose Whirlwind, but was blown away by three quick drains to end up on just 309K. The battle for second was thus between Jan and David, and it was David who stormed his way to the win with 9.5M, ahead of Cayle’s 7M and Jan’s 4.5M.

So the result was, Cayle in first place, David second, Jan third and Roger fourth.

Dutch Pinball Masters 2017 winner, Cayle George (picture: Ad Jonker)

Second place, David Deturck (picture: Ad Jonker)

Third place, Jan Anders Nilsson (picture: Ad Jonker)

Fourth place, Roger Wijnands (picture: Ad Jonker)

Here are the full results:

Dutch Pinball Masters 2017

Pos

Name

1

Cayle George

2

David Deturck

3

Jan Anders Nilsson

4

Roger Wijnands

6

Kirsten Adam

6

Ivan Geentjens

6

Sebastien Puertas

6

John van der Wulp

12

Tormod Pettersen

12

Philippe Bocquet

12

Benjamin Gräbeldinger

12

Fredrik Lekander

12

Taco Wouters

12

Jules Reivers

12

Bart Volman

12

Bjorn Brand

17

Jonas Johansson

17

Albert Nomden

21

Evert Brochez

21

Sylvain Grevin

21

Michel Rorive

21

Martin Ayub

21

Olivier Renders

28

Thomas van Clapdorp

28

Anthony Rorive

28

Jani Saari

28

Evelyne Desot

28

Stéphane Swaenepoel

28

Ramon Richard

28

Marco Suvanto

28

Johan Bernhardtson

28

Jonas Valström

37

Archibald Lefevre

37

Juha Viitanen

37

Mattias Jeppsson

37

Andreas Thorsén

37

Florian Thomas

37

Martijn van Amsterdam

37

Andrej Demsar

37

Laurence Boulieu

37

Norbert Broman

43

Sébastien Muller

43

Paul Jongma

43

Erno Lahdenperä

43

Andrej Rižner

46

Didier Dujardin

46

Eko Elens

48

Joël Wozniak

49

Mark van der Gugten

49

Anders Carlsson

61

Dominique de Cock

61

Ralf Wittwer

61

Thomas Reichenstein

61

Stanislas Chabior

61

Rich Mallett

61

Matt Vince

61

Martijn van Aken

61

Sven Kirmes

61

Mathias Leurs

61

Peter Franck

61

Norman Heikamp

61

Pontus Qvarfordh

61

Bjørn Erlend Hellem

61

Helen de Haan-Verbeek

61

Neil Fellender

61

Lieven Engelbeen

61

Heinz Berges

61

Jeroen Wieringa

61

Fabrizio Amiconi

61

Vincent Chardome

61

Ralf de Kleine

61

Andreas Hedström

84

Eric Andries

84

Jochen Krieger

84

Olav Hjelmstadstuen

84

Gerard Poelwijk

84

Michel Lanters

84

Svein Tjeldflåt

84

Mirko Bogic

84

Daniel Bertilsson

84

Laurent Mahe

84

Morten Søbyskogen

84

Jasper van Embden

84

Vid Kuklec

84

Ollivier Francq

84

Robert Lau

84

Tom Geneyn

84

Gabriele Tedeschi

84

Arjan Neet

84

David Mainwaring

84

Joeri Stroobants

84

Kevin Roelants

84

Perttu Pesä

84

Rob Fransen

84

Alysa Parks

107

Adam Lundquist

107

Fred van den Bosch

107

Simo Rimmi

107

Frank Wolthers

107

Rob Overdijk

107

Oyvind Winther

107

Bas van Embden

107

Daniel Bradford

107

Nils de Kleine

107

Alain Boulieu

107

Jeremy Dorling

107

Erol Saydam

107

Babs Negelen

107

Fredrik Mellberg

107

Artur Natorski

107

Jürgen Schmitz

107

Jeroen Boiten

107

Elin Wilhelmsen

107

Tom Loomans

107

Ronald Klappe

107

Pittchen Müller

107

Gerard Vos

107

Ales Rebec

127

Steven van der Staaij

127

Karin Eisenstecken

127

Vin Jauhal

127

Rob Breyne

127

Jasmijn de Jong

127

Torstein Bjørnstad

127

Mario Schröder

127

Kyoo Barbaix

127

Ronald Oenema

127

Thomas Doepelheuer

127

Olivier Calimet

127

Kelly Lembrechts

127

Wolfgang Haid

127

Justin van Schooneveld

127

Carlo Vijn

127

Glenn Verhoosele

127

Tom-Andre Andersen

127

Alicia Juniet

140

Daniela Oymann

140

Manuela Krieger

140

Machteld Decloedt

140

Željko Vasic

140

Emma Berlin

140

Kevin Sultana

140

Arno Punt

140

Sandra Søbyskogen

And so we come to the end of this report from the Dutch Pinball Masters 2017.

The top four in the Dutch Pinball Masters 2017
(picture: Ad Jonker)

The DPM is a well-established and well-supported international tournament, one which guarantees all players at least eleven games even if they don’t progress beyond the qualification round.

There were clear improvements to the match result reporting system, allowing players to record their own results and providing instant standings which made life easier for competitors and organisers. The timings all went to plan and any technical issues were resolved quickly and amicably.

The only real negative was the quality of the free-play machines, although even there the addition of Ad Jonker’s The Matrix and Capt. Nemo games helped made up for any shortcomings or unavailabilties.

Hopefully next year the dates for the DPM won’t clash with another major European tournament and players can get to enjoy two top-flight Spring tournaments.

The annual UK amusement and coin-op trade show is bacckk at ExCel London in the Docclands area of the capital. Often a launchpad for various companies’ new releases, expect a presence from Stern Pinball on …